The Power of Care

A few days after my hip replacement, my friend and coach, Rob Foster, travelled from Newcastle to Manchester—four hours each way—just to see me. No training talk, no data, no spreadsheets. Just care. He came to watch me hobble around Manchester and chat.

As we meandered through town, the topic came up—care—and just how much it matters in coaching. How it underpins everything we do as coaches. That chat stuck with me, and it’s been on my mind ever since.

In sport, we spend endless time dissecting technique, recovery, and marginal gains—the measurable stuff. But beneath it all, the real difference often lies in the human connection between coach and athlete. When someone knows you truly care, it changes everything.

From a sport psychology perspective, care isn’t just an emotion—it’s a performance enhancer. It builds trust, safety, and motivation. It allows for honesty, vulnerability, and growth.

Care forms the foundation of psychological safety—the sense that you can speak up, make mistakes, and still be valued. For athletes, that’s the environment where learning happens. For coaches, it’s the basis for deeper trust. Without it, relationships become transactional; with it, they become transformational.

Care is interesting—it’s not one-directional. It flows both ways.

There’s the care of a coach—seeing beyond performance metrics, understanding the person behind the athlete, investing in their wellbeing as much as their results.

And there’s the care of an athlete—the respect and effort they bring, the commitment to being coachable, the appreciation for the guidance they’re given.

When both sides care, you get something rare: alignment. The coach is invested in the person, and the athlete is invested in the journey. That’s where real progress—and real relationships—are built.

Genuine care isn’t about lowering standards or avoiding tough conversations. It’s the opposite. When you care, you’re honest, you challenge, you demand more—because you believe in potential. The best coaches care enough to tell the truth. The best athletes care enough to listen.

If you’re a coach: do your athletes feel that you care about them as people, not just performers?

If you’re an athlete: do you show that you care about your development, your coach’s effort, and the process you’re both part of?

Because care isn’t a word—it’s an action. It’s an eight-hour train ride to and from Manchester. It’s a conversation on crutches. It’s showing up.

Maybe that’s why Rob’s approach works so well. He coaches with care at the centre—and everything else flows from there.